


Break Our Balance

by TrioMaxwell



Category: Free!
Genre: Judo AU, M/M, ooc ness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 18:29:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1357543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrioMaxwell/pseuds/TrioMaxwell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The AU where Mikoshiba and Rin took up judo instead of swimming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Break Our Balance

**Author's Note:**

> Judo match points are given based on how well the moves are executed. It’s rather simple. 
> 
> \- Ippon (One point) given to a throw that places the opponent on his back with impetus and control. (There’s a really loud sound heard on impact with the tatami.) Game over.
> 
> An ippon is also given to pinning holds maintained for 20 – 25 seconds. Game over.
> 
> So, sparring procedure, 1) throw, followed by 2) hold.
> 
> \- Waza-ari (0.7 point): A lesser throw, where the opponent is thrown onto his back, but with insufficient force (No sound on impact) to merit an ippon, scores a waza-ari.  
> Not enough to win a match, but two waza-ari equals an ippon. (I know the Math here seems funny but that’s how the scoring goes. The objective of the sport is one skillful throw.)
> 
> In sparring, a waza-ari followed by pinning hold can win you the match. 
> 
> \- Yuko (0.5 point or something like that) A throw that places the opponent onto his side scores a yuko. No amount of yukos equals a waza-ari, they are only considered in the event of an otherwise tied contest.
> 
> The way the scoring goes, a judo bout can be over in two seconds, if the judoka is skillful enough to get an ippon right there and then.

Break Our Balance (Mikorin, AU)

Early morning light painted the sky blue and highlighted the few wisps of clouds that streamed across the heavens pink and gold as Rin ran round the block towards the entrance of the dojo as part of his morning run, sweat pouring down his face. He slowed down as he cross the threshold and paused in the courtyard, drinking in the silence, hearing only his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He glanced at the footwear area outside the door to the dojo and was glad to see that it was empty.

_Good, he’s not here yet._

Rin toed off his running shoes and stripped off his socks, leaving them neatly outside the door. He slid the door open and slipped in barefoot, grabbing a towel from his bag to wipe away the sweat that dripped down his face, not wanting any to stain the tatami mats. The compound was situated in a quaint, quiet part of town, surrounded by low, traditional houses and elegant gardens so sunlight could stream in unblocked by any tall buildings. The clear light filtered through the windows of the dojo, highlighting the dust particles as they floated through the air. For the time being, this silent arena belonged to Rin.

Rin stripped off his shirt and pulled on his judogi top, sliding his arms through the sleeves of heavy cotton, feeling the rough texture of the weave rub against his shoulders. He arranged the panels of the gi front properly, then tied on the brown belt that indicated his rank into a neat and secure knot about his waist. He tied his hair into a neat ponytail before bowing deeply to the tatami mats and stepped in to commence the next set of exercises. Fifty push-ups, fifty sit-ups, fifty leg raises. Break fall exercises, side bends, hamstring stretches,  and butterflies to limber up. Then came the hopping, jumping, reaping and cartwheel drills to improve his range of motion and locomotor skills. Next were the uchikomi drills where Rin practiced with the training dummy, practicing his footwork and execution of throws.

Rin gritted his teeth as he went through his image training with his imaginary opponent. Too slow, _too slow_! He berated himself. He’d be flat on his back on the tatami mats like this. All too-familiar memories of golden eyes, a cheerful grin, “Hey, are you alright, Rin? Don’t mind!”, the warm grasp of an outstretched hand pulling him up from the floor lingering in his mind. How could he ever win if his techniques couldn’t even keep up with his opponent’s speed? Rin mentally went through the combinations of footwork and throws that might possibly work. He wanted to win for once, needed to be the first one to see the shocked expression on his senpai's face as he looked down at him for a change. Bonus points if he managed to mess up Sei's perfectly styled hair.

How did that saying he read the day before, go?

‘Blue and white belts fight like bulls. Brown belts fight like tigers. Black belts must fight like foxes.’ He reflected on his sparring style. He did tend to fight ferociously like a tiger, a straightforward mix of speed and skill. His opponent had always seemed faster than him and always seem to win effortlessly. Fight like a fox to defeat a fox, huh.

Once his opponent grabbed his collar and sleeve, it was all over. Maybe a feint would work. Pretend to go overhand for the collar behind the neck, then go in for a drop throw instead. Tai otoshi maybe, the body drop. Or go all the way down low, for the seoi otoshi, the kneeling shoulder drop. He hadn’t tried that before, maybe it would add an element of surprise for that split-second advantage. If badly executed though, victory would have to be decided through joint-locks or mat holds. Rin grimaced. No, he didn’t want that. It had to be an ippon throw, a definitive one-point victory or Rin could never count it as his first win against him. Rin rehearsed the unfamiliar feint and throw motion on the training dummy, determined to get it right. He had only ever mentally practised against one opponent so far, someone that he had yet to beat ever since he started training in this dojo six months ago.

Rin jumped as the door slid open and Mikoshiba Seijuurou stuck his head in and looked around. He was dressed in his white judogi pants and a black sleeveless tank top, his gi top neatly rolled up and tied with his black belt slung over his shoulder. _Speak of the devil…_

“Oh, Rin! Didn’t you get Sensei’s message that there’s no training today?”

Rin bowed to Seijuurou, who bowed back. “I need to train every day to become good enough to beat Sei-chan-senpai, don’t I?”

Seijuurou grimaced in good humour as he dropped his bundled gi top and messenger bag on the floor next to Rin’s and started his own stretching exercises, limbering up. “Is that why you’re here even though it’s your off day? Look, it’s flattering that I’m the first thing you think about when you wake up every morning, but” he put his hand to his chest dramatically, “don’t you think it’s cruel that all you think about is how to slam your cute and friendly senpai into the floor as hard as you possibly can?” Seijuurou tried to make his eyes big and sparkly and Rin wanted to roll his eyes at how cute Seijuurou looked, even for a grown seventeen-year-old boy.

‘No, all I think about is how I want to slam you into the floor as hard as I possibly can, and then make out with you,’ Rin thought.

(He crushed the thought. He wanted to win first. He wanted to sweep Seijuurou off his feet, literally. That was his goal ever since he had stepped onto the mat for his first randori session in a new dojo and the Sensei had pit him against the black belt judoka closest to his age to assess his skills. Seijuurou had smiled at him from across the mat after the traditional bow before a bout, then swept him off his feet and onto his back on the floor, staring up at Seijuurou in shock. Rin was actually a pretty good fighter for his age group / belt level and he had taken down black belts before, so he had been appalled at how skilfully he had been thrown, how easily he had gone down this time.

Rin had since proved his skills against other members of the dojo but he had yet to beat Seijuurou (or Sensei and his assistant trainer, but they didn’t count). So, Rin had made it his goal to beat Seijuurou. He obsessed night and day on different strategies, but nothing seemed to work, which was frustrating to the extreme. It should’ve been easy to hate the young black belt judoka for just being so blastedly skilled but he was such a good sport and nice guy that Rin couldn’t hate him. He even found his thoughts changing, from wanting to throw him down and choke him, to wanting to pin him down and kiss him. It had been a very confusing time for a sixteen-year-old boy.)

“It’s payback for all the times you’ve done the same to me,” he threw back.

Seijuurou turned the sparkly eyes off and slapped the ground with one hand while protesting petulantly. “Oi, oi, oi, look here, you crazy kid. You‘re the one who challenged me every time! And I’ve always been gentle with you, haven’t I?” Rin looked away, nose in the air. “Don’t ignore me!”

Seijuurou continued grumbling under his breath about disrespectful and unappreciative kouhais as he shrugged off his top and pulled on his uniform. Rin pretended not to watch him change as he sat doing some low intensity stretches to prevent his body from cooling down. He watched openly, though, as Seijuurou went through the same sets of exercises he did earlier. He noted Mikoshiba’s reach and flow, tried to see if there were any habits that could help him predict what Mikoshiba would do next and possibly limit his options. Mostly though, he watched because Mikoshiba in motion was unfairly graceful.

And he pictured the overhand feint, the step into Seijuurou’s space, the twist and turn to pull him closer, yeah, glue my back to his chest, hip to hip, right hand going under his arm to grip him behind the shoulder, the pulling down of both hands, hard, to execute the throw, pulling the sleeve up with both hands to cushion the fall, follow up to the drop throw with both hands gripping onto Seijuurou’s collar tightly, pinning him to the floor and …

“Are you staring at me because you’re checking me out? Or are you just fantasizing about doing unspeakably nasty things to my body?” Mikoshiba spoke up, hands on hips, interrupting Rin’s image training / fantasy.

Rin grinned widely. Offense was a form of defense too. “Are you actually thinking about me doing things to you? Do tell!”

Seijuurou snorted and stretched, looking away. “We’re talking about you, not me. I’m just asking because you’ve been spazzing off and smiling to yourself for quite some time now.”

“I wasn’t spazzing, I was observing! Observing the opponent is a form of training too,” Rin said archly.

“Right, right. Get your ass off the floor and let’s see whether you’ve learnt anything from your ‘training’,” Seijuurou laughed and offered a hand to pull Rin up from the floor.

————

 

Seijuurou laid out the expectations for randori as he set the timer for countdown on his mobile phone.

“Three minute randori bout. Competition throws and mat holds only. No joint locks or chokes. Twenty seconds for the mat hold defined as the time taken to sing the first three lines of whatever song comes to your head.”

“What if I can’t come up with a song?” Rin asked distractedly, even as he tried to reach his zone, the focused state of mind that was reserved for competitions, shutting out fear and distractions so he could react as he had trained, executing his skills when needed, without having to think too much.

“Sing the ‘Birthday Song’ twice,” Seijuurou said absently.

Rin snorted. Seijuurou put the phone down on his bag and hurried over to where Rin stood in the center of the arena. They bowed to each other and the match began.

Rin found his zone faster than he had expected, felt almost calm as they circled each other. He tried to strike first, to grab at Sei’s sleeve and to his surprise, Sei let him. Of course, that meant that Sei could grip his sleeve too, the stiff fabric bunching in his fist. Now they each had a handhold on each other.

Sei tugged his arm forward and down, trying to break his balance and grab his collar but Rin made use of the momentum instead, rushing in to grab the front of Sei’s gi, then trying to sweep Sei’s left leg out from under him while pushing him backwards. Sei twisted in his grip, kept his feet and turned the tables by hooking Rin’s left leg with his own, pivoting sharply to throw Rin’s balance off. For one terrifying moment, both of Rin’s legs left the ground, then both boys went down from the momentum. Rin twisted to land on his side with a grunt, and gripping the sleeve of Sei’s hand that was on his collar, ripped the hand away. He then tackled Sei, tried to immobilize him in a scarf hold, using his own body weight to pin Sei’s shoulders down to the ground but the black belt judoka gripped Rin’s belt with both hands. With a powerful heave of both arms and an arch of his back, he lifted Rin’s waist off the ground and managed to wriggle free from under as Rin’s arm loosened. Now Rin was in trouble!

He tried to scramble to his feet but Sei still had a firm grip about his belt and prevented him from escaping. Yanking Rin backwards gently, Sei hooked Rin’s right arm over his shoulders like they were best friends, and gripped Rin’s wrist with his own right hand, locking him tightly in place, while his left hand gripped Rin’s gi from behind. He looked up at Rin and smiled, in part apology and part triumph. “Ha,” he said softly.

Oh shit, Rin thought.

“Whoaa~arghhhh!” Rin yelped as Sei leant over backwards. Because of the way Sei had jammed himself into Rin’s side, Rin went over backwards too, arms flailing. Sei had positioned his left leg behind Rin’s legs, and so the action swept Rin’s legs out from under him effortlessly. Rin winced as he landed on his back, the breath knocked out of him. The bastard had used a tani otoshi, the valley drop, a sacrificial throw!

He was sure that had been an ippon, but Sei continued to pin him down in a broken scarf hold. “That was a waza-ari,” he murmured into Rin’s ears. “You have twenty seconds.”

Well, shit.

Rin tried to loosen Sei’s hold in every way he knew how, twisting, arching and heaving at Sei’s grip, but he couldn’t break out of the hold. He lay defeated after struggling for what seemed like a bloody long time, breathing heavily.

“Hey,” he said after a while.

“Hmmmm?” Sei hummed, looking too happy to have Rin pinned under him.

“Why aren’t you singing? You know, the twenty seconds for the mat hold thing,” Rin groused.

Rin thought Sei looked shocked, then disappointed, before a cheerful grin broke out across his face. “Whoops! Haha! Sorry, I guess I forgot all about it.”

Rin rolled his eyes. “Get off me, you dork. You’re heavy. It’s your win.”

Sei sighed as he complied. Rin winced as he got up. It wasn’t like he hated being pinned, but God, he was aching all over from the effort expended in trying to escape. He groaned as he gripped his shoulder and rotated it experimentally. “I really need a break.”

They drank their water in silence. Rin wondered if he had the strength left to try out the feint that he had planned. Why not? He thought. If I sit for any longer, I’d only start to seize up anyway. He heaved himself to his feet and looked at Sei. “Hey, ready for round two?”

Sei looked up at him with an indecipherable expression, then chuckled quietly, his shoulders shaking. “Yeah, sure,” he said, also getting to his feet. “I’ve barely even warmed up after all.”

———-

Rin found it hard to stay in the zone with fatigue weighing down his limbs. He supposed that this could be a feint too, to pretend to be slower, so maybe Sei would let down his guard. That was what he thought anyway, even as he and Sei engaged in another fast round of footwork and maneuvering, trying to catch each other off guard. Somehow, Sei managed to deflect both of Rin’s hands away by gripping the ends of both of Rin’s sleeves, pulling, then turning quickly, flipping Rin over in a hip throw. Rin landed on the ground, hard, with a yelp.

When he looked up, Sei had already arranged himself loosely in an approximation of a broken scarf hold about Rin. “What,” Rin said slowly, “the hell was that.”

Sei hrrmed and said conversationally, “Sode tsurikomi goshi, sleeve pulling hip throw. You know, the original creators of throws weren’t very creative in naming their throws sometimes.”

Rin pursed his lips. “I’ve never seen this throw before,” he admitted. He looked at Sei who was leaning casually across his chest, holding Rin’s arm loosely across his waist. “And this was a waza-ari too??” An imperfect throw?

“No, this was a perfect ippon. I just thought I’d reward myself for executing this throw so well.” Sei leaned forward and kissed Rin gently on the lips, lingering a little before settling himself back. He rested his chin on Rin’s chest like a shy, red haired cat, staring into Rin’s face, his expression a strange mix of hope and uncertainty.

Rin blinked at him, a strange feeling building in his chest at Sei’s actions.

Sei looked even more uncertain at Rin’s reaction, or lack thereof. He closed his eyes and murmured, “If this makes you uncomfortable, just…,” he shook his head and exhaled, “… just tell me and I won’t ever bother you again.”

Rin looked at Sei’s dejected form slumped over his chest. He freed his hand from Sei’s waist and brought it up to Sei’s face (he noticed the barely held back flinch) and started to stroke through his friend’s bright red hair, patting him repeatedly, before poking at his cheek with an index finger when his friend wouldn’t open his eyes. Sei finally looked up at him with a confused look.

“It didn’t make me uncomfortable, and I think I like you too.” Rin assured his friend, watching his eyes of gold regain their spark and hopeful light.

“But…, that was rather shy for my first kiss, you dork.” He grinned. “Come here and give me a second one.”

—END—

**Author's Note:**

> I took judo for 6 months when I was 16 yrs old. 
> 
> Judo Terms: 
> 
> Gi: Uniform (Judogi —> Judo uniform)
> 
> Uchikomi: Repeated practice without completion of full move
> 
> Judoka: Practitioner of judo
> 
> Randori: Free practice when two judoka just try different ways to take each other down
> 
> Tai otoshi / Seoi otoshi: Names of different judo throws. 
> 
> IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND
> 
> Judo match points are given based on how well the moves are executed. It’s rather simple.
> 
> \- Ippon (One point) given to a throw that places the opponent on his back with impetus and control. (There’s a really loud sound heard on impact with the tatami.) Game over.
> 
> An ippon is also given to pinning holds maintained for 20 – 25 seconds. Game over.
> 
> So, sparring procedure, 1) throw, followed by 2) hold.
> 
> \- Waza-ari (0.7 point): A lesser throw, where the opponent is thrown onto his back, but with insufficient force (No sound on impact) to merit an ippon, scores a waza-ari.  
> Not enough to win a match, but two waza-ari equals an ippon. (I know the Math here seems funny but that’s how the scoring goes. The objective of the sport is one skillful throw.)
> 
> In sparring, a waza-ari followed by pinning hold can win you the match.
> 
> \- Yuko (0.5 point or something like that) A throw that places the opponent onto his side scores a yuko. No amount of yukos equals a waza-ari, they are only considered in the event of an otherwise tied contest.
> 
> The way the scoring goes, a judo bout can be over in two seconds, if the judoka is skillful enough to get an ippon right there and then.
> 
> Sei’s moves:
> 
> 1) Tani otoshi: Valley drop; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tani_Otoshi
> 
> 2) Broken scarf hold: One of the easiest holds, I think. Very easy to have casual conversations with the one being held down as he/she struggles to escape. Hurhur… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuzure-Kesa-Gatame
> 
> 3) Sode tsurikomi goshi : Sleeve pulling hip throw; rather unusual and difficult, I think. We usually grab the sleeve and collar of the judogi to throw an opponent, not the wrists of the sleeves. More control. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sode_Tsurikomi_Goshi
> 
> Last but not least… this my attempt to write a prompt from this link...
> 
> http://triomaxwell.tumblr.com/post/80349154210/faceboner-im-disgusting-bye
> 
> Of which I fail, because I really don't know how to describe people passionately making out yet.


End file.
